Clockwise from left: Omeed Malik, Donald Trump Jr., David Sacks, Tyler Winklevoss and Cameron Winklevoss.
Since late April, when Washington learned that Donald Trump Jr. and some business partners were planning to open a new private club in Washington called Executive Branch, with memberships costing up to $500,000, curious scenesters — not to mention critics and ethics people — have had more questions than answers.
Who is the target clientele, and what might they expect to get for their money? How will the club fit into the social and political topography of the city? And why was this presumably fancy club going to be located in Georgetown Park, a complexperhaps best known for its bowling alley, clothing retailers and Department of Motor Vehicles service center?
As Executive Branch prepares to open later this month, we finally have some answers.
“During the 2024 campaign, many of us developed deep friendships and wanted to be able to catch up when our paths crossed in D.C.,” said Omeed Malik, Trump Jr.’s business partner in venture capital firm 1789 and a co-founder of the club, in a statement to The Washington Post. “There aren’t a plethora of options that are friendly to Republicans — examples of that abound — and we needed a space where friends can converse without worrying about their conversations showing up in the press the next day.”
What will that space look like? There will be a health-conscious menu with nods to the Make America Healthy Again movement — expect beef tallow to be present, and seed oils to be absent. They’ve hired a chef — Salvatore Brucculeri, of Carriage House, a club in Palm Beach, Florida — to create a menu of American food that will include touches of Mediterranean (think grilled fish, citrus, and olive oil) and Japanese (they’re planning to hire a sushi chef, too). There will be high-end wines and cocktails, but no cigars. The club will be open at least six days a week, with a lower-level bar, dining space, and several lounge areas, and a private VIP section and bar on the mezzanine. The decor will be intended to evoke the elegance of a grand mansion.
As for that $500,000 fee: that’s for the highest tier of Executive Branch membership, which will include only some members, many of whom are out-of-towners. There are cheaper memberships that are in the low six figures, with annual dues in the four- or five-figures — still expensive, but aligned with other clubs of its caliber. Membership is capped around 200 people initially, and demand has far exceeded that number already. No reporters — not even MAGA-friendly ones — are allowed to join. And phones will be checked at the door.
Hiring service staff might seem like a challenge, given D.C.’s liberal population. But the Executive Branch team are confident that, with proper vetting, they’ll be able to weed out any applicants who could cause trouble.
For Trump allies and MAGA influencer types looking for comfortable social spaces in a city full of liberals and feds, there are some new and old options to consider, such as Butterworth’s, Ned’s Club and Cafe Milano. But the Executive Branch aspires to a peer group beyond the Washington scene. Malik name-checks Carriage House, as well as 5 Hertford, in London, explaining that the founders “wanted a high-end experience comparable to the finest social clubs in the world. Why shouldn’t our nation’s capital have a luxury venue like other major metropolitan cities?”
Which brings us to the location.
The Executive Branch will be situated in the lower level of the sprawling Georgetown Park complex, well-known to Washingtonians as the painfully inconvenient home of the only DMV service center in the city’s Northwest quadrant. (The DMV location is on the lower-level, too — but in a different part of the building, so don’t expect to get a glimpse on the way to renew your license.) It used to be a proper mall with an interior courtyard and fountain — immortalized as a filming location in movies including “True Lies” and “No Way Out” — but was more recently converted into mixed-use retail with exterior frontage, with tenants including T.J. Maxx and Gold’s Gym, and a Uniqlo to come. Before 1070 Wisconsin Avenue NW began its transformation into Executive Branch, it was a bar called Clubhouse, which only admitted guests over the age of 23 — because its previous tenant, Church Hall, had a reputation for admitting underage drinkers with fake IDs. On the other side of the street, there’s a 90 Second Pizza and a shop that sells D.C. souvenirs made in China.
This collage of middle-tier Americana would seem to cut against the aesthetics of exclusive private luxury to which the club aspires. (The phrase “Mall-A-Lago” comes to mind.) On the other hand, it’s in Georgetown. Malik knew he wanted to locate the club there, calling the area an “iconic Washington neighborhood steeped in social history.” There’s a direct entrance to the Executive Branch’s part of the building from the parking garage, so members will have privacy when they enter and exit. It’s also a distance from many of the city’s other clubs — and from work. “We were drawn to a location separate from the political power centers on Capitol Hill and the White House, which provides just enough distance to help our members take a break,” Malik says.
The political scene has experienced a bit of a private-club resurgence recently thanks to the opening of Ned’s Club, a hot spot near the White House that has seen VIP guests including Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, CNN anchor Kaitlan Collins, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-New York), and billionaire Mark Cuban swing by. Meanwhile, old-school clubs including the Cosmos Club and the Metropolitan are trying to appeal to a younger generation. In May, Tysons Corner’s Tower Club announced a renovation and rebranding intended to modernize its look.
President Donald Trump — famously a country club guy — may have contributed to “an appreciation of society in the clubs,” says Bill McMahon, founder of the McMahon Group, a private club consulting firm. McMahon has consulted on other clubs in Washington, and while he isn’t involved with Executive Branch, he echoed an assumption others have made about why clients might be eager to buy in. “You’re paying a lot for it,” he said, speculating about the mindset of the joiners, “because you’re expecting to get a lot back.”
This is what the critics are worried about: that Executive Branch might not simply be a luxurious hangout for the kind of jet-setting titans (for whom a six-figure membership fee may not be a meaningful expense), but as an ante-up for those looking to get in good with the administration and its allies. Other than Don Jr. and Malik, the club’s co-founders include Christopher Buskirk, a partner in 1789 Capital, along with Alex and Zach Witkoff, sons of Steve Witkoff, United States special envoy to the Middle East. Among the top-tier members are David Sacks, White House AI and crypto czar, and Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss, who have founded a cryptocurrency platform.
“It just appears to be a ploy to sell access to Trump and the Trump administration through this private club for wealthy donors,” says John Pelissero, a director at the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at Santa Clara University. Pelissero, who focuses on government ethics, is concerned that the club could be used for conducting government business in secret.
A number of Democratic lawmakers have framed the Executive Branch’s existence in nefarious terms — perhaps none as colorfully as Sen. Adam Schiff (D-California), who, in a May 14 speech, characterized the club as a place “for insiders, for investors and billionaires to directly line the pockets of the first family, sending a message as clear as day to anyone who wants to do business in the United States: If you want to be with Trump, you’ve gotta pay the cover charge.”
Malik called these claims “ridiculous.
“Members at Executive Branch are already plugged in — they don’t need to trek across town to Georgetown for access,” he said in a statement. “This is not a space for fundraisers or lobbying. It’s a place for members to come and enjoy the best food and finest wine that DC has to offer in a private and relaxing environment.” Besides, he added: “Where are all the media stories accusing clubs designed for Democrats” — such as the National Democratic Club ($500 initiation fee, $1440 annual dues) and Women’s National Democratic Club ($325 initiation fee, $840 annual dues) — “of peddling influence?”
Omeed Malik is a co-founder of Executive Club.
The club’s name, rather than suggesting a portal to the actual executive branch, is intended to “honor our location in the nation’s capital,” Malik says. The founders “also liked the tongue-in-cheek nature of it,” he added. “Our members are executives at the top of their game, whatever their industry or expertise.”
Apparently some rando is trying to use the club’s existence to make money, or make fun, or both. A website with a similar URL as Executive Branch’s site has begun soliciting “membership” inquiries via bitcoin donation. “Please note that preference for contact may be given to those who have best demonstrated their spirit of generosity,” the website says, adding that donations “may allow us to facilitate making ‘every reasonable effort’ in connecting you with the member or department best suited for your needs.” Executive Branch says that this other site has no affiliation to the club, that its legal team is involved, and that it aims to have the site shut down. (The real Executive Branch website is simple, with a crest on a green background and an email address for membership inquiries.)
The club’s long-term success may rest on how much time members of the Trump family and other VIPs actually spend at the club.
“My initial gut is that those people are so busy you’re not going to see much of them,” McMahon says.
Maybe that’s why neighbors in the area haven’t made much of a fuss about Executive Branch. The chatter on lower Wisconsin Avenue has been minimal and polite, says neighborhood commissioner Mimsy Lindner.
“People are curious and simply want to make sure that they have [their] liquor license,” she says via email. “Not much else.”